Television communications over the years has become an everyday part of existence in the United States and abroad. These communications include a wide range of words and phrases. Some of the viewers of these communications would prefer that some specific words or phrases not be utilized. Viewers of these programs would like to view these programs but without having to be exposed to undesirable words or phrases. In order to meet this need, the viewing audience needs a means for automatically identifying specific words and/or related phrases and muting such words or phrases without affecting the video portion of the television or video signal.
Prior art for automatic program recognition and modification follows two different paths. The first path discloses methods of identifying and subsequent blocking out of video signals. U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,518 by Hunter, et al., discloses a method and apparatus for the recognition of electronic television broadcast programming and for a choice among available programs. It allows the user to lock out or block out all programs that have not been determined to be suitable to be viewed by all family members. These types of parental control devices work off principles of the time and codes. The devices block a television signal, both video and audio portions, during specific time frames and which have specific rating pursuant to an established rating code. This type of device does not allow the viewer to view the program.
The other line of prior art relates to the splitting of the audio and video portions of the television broadcast signal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,273 for Okamura discloses a circuit which allows the closed captioned data contained within the video portion of the television signal to be displayed whenever the muting function of the audio portion of the signal has been activated (see also U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,716 for Foyler, et al.). This device focuses on displaying the closed captioned data when the audio portion of a signal is muted. This device is an aid when the viewer manually activates the muting function of a television set. It does not act as a monitor of the content of the video portion of the television signal.
The ability to choose what is appropriate for the family is becoming more and more important. Prior art discloses either a method of blocking out an entire program and thus missing important information or by manually muting the audio portion and displaying the closed captioned text, the closed-captioned data would still include, and thus display specific undesired information on the screen. There is a need in which to mute specific words or phrases while at the same time not effecting the video portion of the signal while displaying a modified closed caption signal.